CVE-2026-40281 CRITICAL

CVE-2026-40281: Gotenberg vulnerable to argument injection via newlines in ExifTool metadata values

Vendor Gotenberg
Product gotenberg
Weakness CWE-88
Published May 6, 2026
Last update May 7, 2026

CVSS base score

10.0/10
Attack vector Network
Attack complexity Low
Privileges required None
User interaction None
Confidentiality None
Integrity High

CVSS vector

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:H/A:H

What the vulnerability does

01Description

Gotenberg is a Docker-powered stateless API for PDF files. In versions 8.30.1 and earlier, the metadata write endpoint validates metadata keys for control characters but leaves metadata values unsanitized. A newline character in a metadata value splits the ExifTool stdin line into two separate arguments, allowing injection of arbitrary ExifTool pseudo-tags such as -FileName, -Directory, -SymLink, and -HardLink. This is a bypass of the incomplete key-sanitization fix introduced in v8.30.1. An unauthenticated attacker can rename or move any PDF being processed to an arbitrary path in the container filesystem, overwrite arbitrary files, or create symlinks and hard links at arbitrary paths.

Key dates

02Disclosure timeline

May 6, 2026 CVE published
May 7, 2026 Record updated